asus a7v133 - raid controller problem?

[tzengCS]

hey guys, hope someone can help me out....
5 months ago i bought the asus a7v133 and a 1.33 ghz athlon and ive had problems ever since. i formatted under windows 2k and it worked fine until i switched video cards from a riva tnt to an aiw radeon. the startup time for windows became really slow, about 4 minutes long. everything was fine after the startup, but a 4 minute startup was unacceptable. i thought it was an win 2k acpi problem, but after installing windows xp recently, with a new geforce3, i still get the same slow startup time. what i did notice was that the promise ide raid controllers were loading up every time. i have an 1 ibm 40 gb 60 gxp deskstar, and do not use raid. the raid option was turned off in my bios before i install win xp, but it still continues to load up the raid drivers. that is what i think is causing my slow startup. i think xp is thinking i am running raid and continues to detect it for a few minutes, before it finally just lets me get into windows.
anybody else run into a similar problem and know what to do? this start up time just really stinks....

also, my 1.33 ghz athlon is 266 or 133 fsb. anyone know why my mobo automatically defaults my cpu to 100 fsb thereby causing me to run 10 multiplier x 100 fsb = 1000 mhz. everytime i put my bios back to defauly setting, i have to manually "overclock" back to 133 fsb.

thank for any input!

 

[chizow]

The "default" mode for fully jumperless is 100mhz FSB, so thats not a bug/problem. Somewhat annoying, but its normal.

As for the RAID issue, are you talking about the Promise controller right after the IRQ status screen, is the screen still black and the dots slowly trickle across the screen? If thats the case, then you haven't disabled the RAID controller in the BIOS. Its one of the last menus and is titled "onboard RAID BIOS" or something to that effect. My bro has my old A7V133 now so I don't have the manual nor the BIOS handy. If it happens after you get a Windows type background I dunno what to tell you :/

Chiz

 

[tzengCS]

thanx for the tip on the "default" fsb setting, i was just afraid that i got the wrong cpu or something, despite the etch marking on the core

as for the raid issue, in the boot menu of the bios, there is a option for "Load Onboard ATA Bios". i can choose "auto" or "disabled" and mine is set to disabled. as for the black screen after the irq menu, i think you are referring to the raid bios which commonly appears after it when someone is running raid. in that bios, u can normally even disable raid. however, the raid bios does not even show up for me.

where my promise ide controller shows up is actually in windows. when i look under device manager for the ide controller, it says it is running some promise ide raid controller. this is why i think i am having a raid problem.

thanx so much for your input, i hope you or anyone else can help!

 

[chizow]

Interesting. It should be disabled if you set it in the BIOS, however, you can disable the RAID controller on the mobo too with jumpers. I would remove the device in windows, then power down, check the jumper and set it to disabled if you have to. Then go into your BIOS, disabled onboard ATA like you had before, and boot into windows again. If it detects it again, there is definitely something funky with your SoftBios/Jumpers. I disabled the RAID/Promise IDE after my 2nd boot up b/c it made my boot take 2x as long and I wasn't running an array.

Chiz

 

[tzengCS]

exactly my problem, startup seems to run 2x as slow because im not running any raid array. the mobo is set to jumperfree, when i get some time after school work, ill see about manually setting my jumpers for both the fsb setting and the raid ata controller and seeing what happens.

and again, thanx for the input...computers are so frustrating when they dont work like u want

 

[tzengCS]

actually, u know what?...default settings for jumperfree should have raid bios disabled anyway. i dont know that setting the jumpers will do anything. when i get more time, ill do it anyway though....thanx!

 

[FlipSide]

When I got mine the default on the promise controler was set to IDE ATA 100. I have a drive in one of the chanels. The promise shows up and only takes about 15 secs, identifying the drive and goes on normal boot sequence. The only time I have seen tremendous long boot sequences is when a component is not properly identified by the system. I installed a SB Live MP3 on my CUV4X with FURY PRO and a ATI TV Wonder I had major problems at boot. The SB is getting the same IRQ as the video.

Few things you might want to check, have you installed the latest bios (1007), try switching PCI slots for your hardware. I believe there is also a jumper setting to totally disable the raid controler or maybe in the bios. I also came across something about the raid controller using the same IRQ as the 1st PCI slot. This could be causing the your boot woes.

 

[tzengCS]

yeah, I had the same thought about a component not being detected properly. thats why at first i thought it might be an acpi problem, cuz acpi on win2k and winxp both put my videocard and sb live and a whole bunch of other things on irq 9.
im at work now, so ill take a look when i get home, but ill see if my raid controller is on the same irq as something else. and thanx for that tip on default ata settings, ill check the jumpers when i have more time.

i have tried the changing the pci slots thing, but that doesnt seem to work. i even manually changed irq positions in the bios. but acpi always sets my irqs for me.

my boot woes continue, but thanx for tips, gave me new things to think about. i hope these tips keep on comin from u guys.

 

[FlipSide]

Just remembered, did you disable the onboard sound. I believe there is a chunk of pins close to the last pci slot. You have to move the shorting 'things' to next row to fully disabe the sound chip on the mobo. This could be conflicting with your SB on the pci slot.

 

[tzengCS]

yeah, i was trying to figure out how to do disable the sound like that. thanx for the tip!